tagged w/ Sea turtle eggs
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Oiled Nest
20 hours ago | Pensacola, Florida
Posted by:
SJP33
CNN producer note
'I was disgusted when we came across the sea turtle nesting site and saw the tar balls and dead fish plastered across the top of the site with no protection around it besides the ropes to keep people out,' SJP33 said. 'I know it's dangerous to move the nest, but wouldn't a barrier have been a better option than leaving it exposed like it was?'
- ccostello3, CNN iReport producer
iReport —
On a Pensacola beach a Sea Turtle Nest sits undisturbed while balls of oil and small dead fish cover it.Oiled Nest
20 hours ago | Pensacola, Florida
Posted by:
SJP33
CNN... more
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Two sea turtles decapitated on Florida beach
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Saving nature's unborn from the Gulf oil disaster
By Kim Segal, CNN
July 9, 2010 7:50 p.m. EDT
Sea turtle eggs are packed into a cooler along with sand from the Gulf Coast beach they are leaving.
* U.S. wildlife experts are moving sea turtle eggs by hand to save them from the oil disaster
* Such a relocation effort has never been done before
* They are being taken from Florida Panhandle to Kennedy Space Center
* They will be stored in a special NASA building, then released into the Atlantic Ocean
Port St. Joe, Florida (CNN) -- One by one, with a hand as steady as a surgeon's, Lorna Patrick removes eggs from a sea turtle's nest on a Florida beach.
"If it falls, you probably killed the hatchling that's developing inside," said Patrick, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Patrick admits she holds her breath each time she takes an egg out of the sand and places it in the foam cooler.
Sand is delicately placed in the cooler between and on top of each egg. Patrick uses the sand from the nest, which is located just a few inches from the beach's surface.
This process is part of an unprecedented sea turtle relocation program. Moving sea turtle nests days before the eggs are to hatch has never been done before.
It is also the first time that wildlife experts had to deal with oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
"Shy of letting the hatchlings swim in oil, it's our best alternative," said Sandy MacPherson, the national sea turtle coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"We're confident if they go into oil they're going to die."
Patrick is working on the second sea turtle nest to be moved since the program started. Ninety percent of the United States' sea turtle population can be found on Florida's beaches, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
It is estimated that 700 nests can be found in the Florida Panhandle, an area vulnerable to the oil spill.
"This is a huge relocation effort," said Thomas Strickland, assistant secretary of interior for fish and wildlife and parks. "As many as 50 to 100,000 eggs over the next six to eight weeks will be dug up."
An average nest has anywhere from 100 to 120 eggs. Sea turtles come out of the water a few feet from the coastline and lay their eggs in the warm sand.
Loggerhead turtle eggs, the type Patrick is handling, usually hatch within 60 to 70 days. The eggs are moved just over a week before they are expected to hatch.
Wildlife officials want to keep the eggs in their natural environment as long as possible.
"Through the eggs it's believed they actually connect to the landscapes where they were born," Strickland said.
Once the turtles mature it is hoped that they will return to the original nesting area and the natural birthing cycle will continue. Once Patrick's two coolers are full, with the nest's 107 eggs, they will start a journey across the state.
A special climate-controlled truck donated by Federal Express will deliver the eggs to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The coolers will be stored in a special NASA building that will be regulated to the warm summer temperatures to which the eggs are accustomed.
Instead of the beautiful white sandy beach, the hatchlings will be born in the transport coolers.
Once they break out of their shells, the warm blue Atlantic Ocean will be awaiting them.Saving nature's unborn from the Gulf oil disaster
By Kim Segal, CNN
July 9,... more
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NASA's latest mission doesn't have anything to do with spacecraft or satellites. The space agency is helping thousands of baby sea turtles make their successful pilgrimage to the ocean. Biologists are digging up some 700 turtle nests on northern Gulf beaches affected by the BP oil spill, from Panama City to Apalachicola, Florida, and relocating them to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida's Space Coast.
To simulate the natural environment, the eggs will be buried in damp sand inside Styrofoam coolers and transported via a temperature-controlled truck to KSC. There, they will be held and monitored at an undisclosed facility until they hatch. Once the turtles begin to break free from their shells, they will be moved quickly to nearby beaches to make their trek to the sea, where they feed exclusively along the line of Sargassum seaweed at the edge of the current. Most of the nests are made by the threatened loggerhead sea turtle, but some are possibly from three endangered species -- Kemp's ridley, leatherback, and green sea turtles. Each nest has 100-120 eggs.
Only about one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings typically survives to adulthood under the best conditions. Experts say that with oil right off the Gulf Coast, the turtles' odds of survival there drop to virtually zero. BP's ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill has released hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and is considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission all played a role in developing the relocation plan. NASA offered to house the turtles until they hatched at its climate-controlled facilities at KSC. Although biologists can't be certain the sea turtle relocation plan will succeed, they say all of this year's hatchlings from the northern Gulf of Mexico will be lost if nothing is done.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-07/nasa-will-rescuethousands-sea-turtle-eggs-oil-leak-areasNASA's latest mission doesn't have anything to do with spacecraft or... more
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A sea turtle egg relocation project has been started in hopes of keeping hatchlings out of the oil that's spreading through Gulf of Mexico.
Henry Cabbage of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they have started digging up sea turtle eggs in nests in Florida's Panhandle.
The eggs are being moved to a secure facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the turtles will be released in the Atlantic Ocean once they're hatched. Cabbage said the fear with leaving the eggs on the Gulf Coast is "the turtles will ride the current into the oil."
The eggs will be collected three times a week from now until November.A sea turtle egg relocation project has been started in hopes of keeping hatchlings... more
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September 5, 2008
Contact: Carli Segelson
(727) 896-8626
Photos available at: http://research.myfwc.com/gallery/view_category.asp?catid=1289&subcatid=2309
Video available at: http://research.myfwc.com/features/view_article.asp?id=17014
FWC: "LET SEA TURTLES RIDE OUT IKE"
People attempting to save sea turtles eggs and hatchlings may cause more harm than good, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) advises. Although storms can have a negative effect on sea turtle nests and hatchlings, these animals have evolved to have nesting strategies that enable them to survive natural events such as hurricanes. No storm season is a total loss to sea turtles, even in years when Florida has sustained direct hits.
Digging into marked or unmarked turtle nests in an effort to help may cause severe damage to the eggs. Sea turtle eggs are resilient, and if undisturbed, may still hatch despite waves washing over them. Disturbing sea turtle nests is a violation of both state and federal laws.
The FWC urges beachgoers to contact the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) if they encounter a nest eroding into the ocean or a hatchling that is not actively crawling or appears sick or injured. Sick or injured turtles may need rehabilitation before returning to the wild.
Hatchlings moving toward the surf should be allowed to continue their trek without interference. These young turtles have the ability to swim through large waves.
Authorization from the FWC is required before transporting sea turtle eggs or hatchlings.
For more information about sea turtles, visit http://research.myfwc.com/.
September 5, 2008
Contact: Carli Segelson
(727) 896-8626
Photos available... more
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